Opening Alert: OIivella Restaurant, North Bergen, NJ

Olivella, a new Italian restaurant, has opened in North Bergen. This is the first New Jersey project from chef Salvatore Olivella, a native of Naples, Italy who’s consulted for many NYC pizza spots including Marta, the Serafina Group, L’asso, Numero 28 and more. He also co-owns Olivella’s Neo Pizza Napoletana, a group of 4 restaurants in Dallas, Texas.

The restaurant serves (View Menu) brick oven pizza and a full menu of antipasti, pasta and entrees – often with inventive twists from the chef like Sushi di Parma: housemade fior di latte cheese wrapped in prosciutto di San Daniele and Gnocchi Alla Romagnola: with porcini, fresh truffle in a Pinot Grigio sauce.

For his Garden State debut, Olivella and his partners have built a 50-seat restaurant with a wood-burning pizza oven as the centerpiece and rear dining room flooded with natural light through a glass roof.